Etapalli is a village and a

tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluk, or taluka () is a local unit of administrative division in India and Pakistan. It is a subdistrict of the area within a Zila (country subdivision), district including the designated populated place that ser ...

Gadchiroli district Gadchiroli district (Marathi pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, �əɖt͡ʃiɾoliː is an administrative Districts of Maharashtra, district in Maharashtra, India. The city of Gadchiroli is the administrative headquarters of the district. Offic ...

in the

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

n state of

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

. Etapalli is known for its rich forest and a range of mountains called Surjagarh, located at the distance of 15 km from etapalli. It can be reached by road. The Surjagarh consists of a range of 4 mountains which are straight, nearly vertical, and difficult to climb. Each year, the

indigenous people There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

climb them in large numbers when there is a pilgrimage on an auspicious day in the first week of January. This is the only time when the mountains can be climbed due to their religious significance. As is the belief of the tribes, the "bada deo ", the greatest god resides on the mountain; women are not permitted to climb the mountain. Despite the difficult trek, men of all ages and even children climb up the mountain some with a male goat on their shoulders for sacrifice. These men first worship at the base and they are greeted with dancing. Huge crowds of women, children, and other people wait at base for the men of honour to climb up and come down safely from the dangerous place. The meaning of the name Surjagarh is the fort of the sun. The name is derived from a fort built in a single stone on one of the mountain roof. It is said to have been built by the famous Veer Baburao Sadmake, the freedom fighter. He used the fort for keeping himself and his army safe and hidden from the British army. Surjagarh is also known for its rich source of iron ore. It is said that the iron ore deposits at Surjagarh are so largethat it can fulfill whole India's iron requirements for next 120 years. Because of the iron deposits, there have been many struggles between mining companies and the villagers. There have also been many incidences of bloodshed supposedly related to this mining. Despite the disapproval of the natives of Surjagarh, thousands of mature trees were cut down; the forest of Surjagarh suffered serious loss The villagers claimed that the former state government and the mining companies deceived the villagers by taking a fake approval from dummy villagers that they presented at a general meeting which took place 45 km from Surjagarh. This matter was raised at an international indigenous peoples conference organized by the

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by one of the activists, Lalsu Nogoti.

Demographics

As per the 2011 census of India, the population of the tehsil was 81,713.

References

Cities and towns in Gadchiroli district Talukas in Maharashtra {{Gadchiroli-geo-stub